Tsubasa Spring
The Tsubasa Spring is a Japanese folding camera taking 4×6.5 and 3×4 pictures on 127 film. It was sold by Optochrom from 1938. Description The Tsubasa Spring is a vertical folder, with incurved folding struts. It has a small top housing on the top plate, supporting an accessory shoe and containing the viewfinder. There are two lines in the viewfinder to indicate the field of view for 3×4cm exposures. There is a large button on the right to release the folding bed and a smaller shutter release on the left. The advance key is at the bottom right and the back is hinged to the left. The front leather is embossed TSUBASA. The lens is a Lucomar Anastigmat 75/4.5. The shutter is a Tsubasa with T, B, 25–100 speeds and a body release. The shutter plate is marked TSUBASA SHUTTER at the top and NEW GOLD at the bottom with a NE logo on the right. In the various advertising pictures, the lens rim is thin and no focusing control is apparent. However the only pictures of a surviving example observed so far show a front-cell focusing lens. Example pictured in , item 1252, and lens and shutter pictured in Fujishima, p.22 of no.8, perhaps from the same camera. Advertisements and original documents The camera was advertised in a variety of names: "Tsubasa Spring A", "Tsubasa Spring", "Tsubasa Spring Camera", "Tsubasa A Chrome", "Tsubasa A Spring". Despite the successive names, no change is visible in the features or in the advertising pictures. The camera was first advertised in early 1938 as the "Tsubasa Spring A" (ツバサスプリングA), and it was featured as such in the new products column of the June 1938 issue of Asahi Camera. , p.337 (item 145). In the June 1938 advertisement in Asahi Camera, the camera is listed as the "Tsubasa Spring" (ツバサスプリング), priced at . Advertisement reproduced in , p.78. Eight authorized dealers are mentioned: Asanuma Shōkai, Hagi Kōgyō Bōeki, Misuzu Shōkai, Mizuno Shashinki-ten, Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten, Eikōdō, Matsuzaki Shashinki-ten and Ueda Shashinki-ten. It is pictured with a Tsubasa accessory rangefinder, offered separately for ¥14. In advertisements dated September 1938 and February 1939, Advertisement in Asahi Camera September 1938, reproduced in the Gochamaze website. Advertisement in Asahi Camera February 1939, reproduced in , p.78. the model is called "Tsubasa Spring Camera" (ツバサ・スプリング・カメラ) and priced the same, and the price of the rangefinder is now ¥15. In an advertisement dated April 1939, the camera is called "Tsubasa A Chrome" (ツバサＡ型クローム) and priced at , and the rangefinder is at ¥16. Advertisement in Asahi Camera, reproduced in , p.79. In a December 1939 advertisement, the name is "Tsubasa A Spring" (ツバサAスプリング), the price of the camera is the same and the rangefinder is no longer mentioned. Advertisement on p.18 of Nihon Shashin Kōgyō Tsūshin, December 15, 1939, reproduced on p.52 of Hyaku-gō goto jūkai no kiroku. The camera appears in the list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, under the name "Tsubasa Spring B" (¥45), with no further detail. , type 2, section 6A. Notes Bibliography * Item 145–7. (See also the advertisement for item 144.) * Fujishima Kōichi (藤島広一). "Shattā ni yoru nendai shibetsu" (シャッターによる年代識別, Dating a camera from its shutter). Pp.21–4. * Type 2, section 6A. * P.465. * Nihon Shashin Kōgyō Tsūshin (日本写真興業通信). Hyaku-gō goto jūkai no kiroku (百号ごと十回の記録, Ten records, every hundred issues). Tokyo: Nihon Shashin Kōgyō Tsūshin Sha (日本写真興業通信社), 1967. No ISBN number. Advertisement on p.52, corresponding to p.18 of the December 15, 1939 issue. * Item 1252. Links In Japanese: * Advertisement published in the September 1938 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in the Japanese camera page of the Gochamaze website Category: Japanese 4x6.5 viewfinder folding Category: Kigawa Category: T Category:1938